Absolutely Forbidden
by Ruby Friday
Summary: Hinata didn't know why she did it, but she did, and it was exhilarating...and Naruto was very impressed. NaruHina, oneshot.


_Disclaimer: I do not own Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto or any of its characters. Cheers._

Hinata wasn't quite sure what possessed her to do it.

Maybe it was boredom, but that wasn't likely – Hinata Hyuga had an inhuman attention span. It could have been jealousy of her sister Hanabi. Hinata hid it well, but envy for her sister was always present in her mind. Hanabi possessed greater skill, despite being younger. She was prettier. More popular. And she'd been training in the front room of the Hyuga compound with her father for nearly six hours.

Hinata could hear them, and she was so jealous she could barely see straight. Getting her father to remember her _name _was a stretch, let alone pay attention to her for more than five minutes.

It didn't matter, though, what possessed her to do it. All that mattered was that Hinata Hyuga _did _it.

She opened the window of her third-story bedroom and crawled out of it, landing neatly on the street below. It was nine o'clock at night, it was December, it was dark and cold. It was Absolutely 100% Forbidden, something that no respectable young Hyuga lady would ever be caught doing and expect to live to see the light of day. It was against _every _rule her father had laid out for her and enforced with an iron fist since the day she was born.

But she did it, and it was exhilarating. The adrenaline pumping through her limbs didn't cease for nearly five minutes, and she could hear her heart pounding in her ears all the way to the main street.

It really was freezing outside, and it occurred to Hinata that she'd acted on impulse (which she never did) and had no real plan of what to do after executing her brilliant and difficult escape. She walked along Konoha's main street for a few minutes. It was mostly deserted and she saw no one she knew, until she reached the bright lights and cozy warmth of the Ichiraku Ramen Bar and saw Naruto's unmistakable orange outfit peeking out from beneath the curtains of the ramen bar.

Hinata wasn't surprised. If Naruto wasn't on a mission, then generally he was training or lounging at the ramen bar, trying to wheedle Teuchi into giving him noodles for free. But she'd always been too shy to stop in and say hello, or 'accidentally' run into him while eating her own ramen, because she didn't even like ramen.

She stood in the middle of the street, contemplating. She didn't want to go back to the Hyuga compound so soon and bring such an abrupt end to her adventure. But she was freezing. She hadn't thought to bring a jacket, let alone gloves or proper shoes, and her fingers and toes were numb with cold. She didn't want to go all the way to Ino's or Tenten's house because she was less than confident in her navigation abilities at night and didn't want to activate her Byakugan. It really only left her with one option and that was to join Naruto at the ramen bar.

But she never knew what to say to him. She liked him, liked him a lot, and tended to freeze up in his presence. That would be beyond embarrassing. Or what if he was waiting for someone – Sakura, or another girl? Hinata didn't think she could stand watching him with a date. It was bad enough that he didn't feel the same way about her.

In the end, Hinata stood there about ten minutes and watched Naruto devour three bowls of ramen before she walked, very slowly, heart pounding harder than ever before, up to the ramen bar.

She ducked under the curtain, and quickly, before she could change her mind, slipped into the seat next to his.

'H-hello, Naruto,' Hinata murmured, staring intently at the countertop.

Naruto, sunny as ever, turned to her and smiled (not that she saw) and said 'Hi, Hinata! I didn't know you liked ramen!'

'O-of c-course I do!' Hinata lied, giggling nervously. 'I j-just love it.'

Things were complicated when the proprietor of the establishment, Teuchi, walked up to her and asked what she'd have.

Hinata had to face the fact that she didn't actually know any types of ramen, having disliked it since she was introduced to solid foods. She turned to Naruto, meeting his curious eyes for the first time (so blue, so blue) and said softly, 'W-what would y-you recommend?' Another very nervous giggle escaped her lips. 'Y-you're the r-ramen expert.'

Naruto grinned widely and turned to Teuchi. 'Bring Hinata a miso ramen with extra pork!'

Pork. Hinata figured she could handle that. After all, it was warm in this bar, for more reasons than one. Naruto's presence next to her was flooding her face with heat and she knew how red her cheeks must be.

'So, Hinata, what brings you here so late at night?' Naruto asked enthusiastically.

'I...I...I sneaked out,' she admitted.

'What?' Naruto yelled. 'You? Sneaked OUT?' Hinata flinched at the volume of his exclamation, but he followed it with a loud 'That's awesome! I never expected you to do something so cool.'

Hinata blushed more at his approval, studying the grain of the wooden countertop with great interest.

'Not, not, I don't mean that you're _not _cool,' he amended hastily. 'It's just that...wow.'

She ventured another adventurous gaze into his face. His eyes were wide and he had the biggest smile ever on his face.

'Y-yeah?' she said softly, smiling back.

'Yeah,' he agreed.

Naruto was actually very impressed. Sneaking out was a daily occurrence for someone like Ino or Kiba, but Hinata? That was a big thing. He'd just noticed, her eyes got squinty when she smiled. He liked it. He hadn't even known he liked it.

Just then, Teuchi arrived at the bar with her ramen and placed it in front of her with chopsticks. 'Enjoy,' he said and disappeared into the back of the shop.

Hinata dipped her chopsticks into the ramen and, as daintily as she could manage with fingers shaking so violently, lifted some noodles to her mouth. It wasn't _awful. _She supposed she'd tasted worse things.

'What do you think?' Naruto asked brightly.

'It's g-great!' she squeaked. Insincere, yes, but polite. Hinata was _always _impeccably polite.

'I'm glad you like it!' Naruto said. She could feel his eyes on her. It made her heart race.

'A-are we the o-only ones here?' Hinata inquired. She knew the answer without his reply. They were. At this rate she was going to have a heart attack before she could get home.

'Yeah. There's not much demand for ramen on a freezing December night,' Naruto joked. When he thought about it, her stutter was pretty cute. 'Wait, why are your hands shaking so much?'

'It's p-pretty cold out t-there,' Hinata offered. 'I f-forgot to bring my g-gloves, so...'

'Geez, Hinata, think before you sneak out of your house!' he teased. Gently he reached over and removed the chopsticks from her hands, placing them into her dish. His fingers brushed hers as he did this, and Hinata froze.

Then he took her hands into his, swiveling her bar stool slightly to face him. 'There,' he said with another blinding smile. 'I'll warm your hands up.'

'I...' Hinata practically heard her blood hammering through her veins. She started to hyperventilate a bit, but calmed herself down. How tragic it would be to faint in Naruto's lap during such a perfect moment? And it was a perfect moment. Naruto Uzumaki had her hands clutched in his. Was this a dream? An drug-induced tactile hallucination? Hinata hadn't taken any drugs. She looked up at him, perhaps to reassure herself, perhaps just to see his face again.

Naruto caught his breath slightly when the young kunoichi looked up at him through long lashes with her big pearlescent eyes. Hinata was _pretty. _Prettier, maybe, than even Sakura.

Surreptitiously he glanced down at her body. She wasn't wearing her usual coat, just a lavender top over her mesh top underneath. He hadn't noticed before because of her shroud of a heavy jacket was always on, but Hinata had a really great figure.

_Oh, man, _thought Naruto, _how did I ignore her for so long?_

Hinata smiled slightly, blushing heavily when she saw Naruto staring at her. 'I-it was pretty...s-stupid,' she whispered. 'T-to crawl out the w-window without a j-jacket or gloves...'

'You crawled out the _window?' _Naruto muttered. 'Aren't you on the third floor?' He noticed a blush spreading across her flawless face, and oddly felt his own cheeks get hot.

'Y-yeah. I'm a n-ninja, remember?' Hinata was shocked and pleased that she was able to form coherent sentences. This was possibly the most frightening and exciting situation she'd ever been in.

'Right,' he said. 'You have a lot of guts, Hinata.'

'T-thank you...'

Before he knew what he was doing, he freed one of his hands and brushed her long sapphire hair off her face. He leaned in slightly, and murmured, 'I like that.'

Hinata was having some trouble breathing. He was _so close. _His eyes were so blue and he was so close. But a voice in her head that she'd never heard before said, Relax. Enjoy it.

So she relaxed for the first time in his presence, leaned a little closer herself, and breathed, 'Good.'

She smelled like vanilla and jasmine and he'd never really thought of her that way until today, but Naruto's heart was pounding as he pushed forward and pressed his lips to hers.

He heard her gasp, but then, to his joy, she kissed him back, soft and sweet, the way she did everything. She rested one hand on his knee, the other was still clasped in his hand. She felt his tongue on her lips and parted them slightly and gasped again as she felt him begin to explore her mouth. He tasted like...

...ramen.

She liked ramen, she decided. And she liked sneaking out of the house and being freezing cold and being shy and awkward because it led to this.

When they parted, he was breathing somewhat heavily and she was glad to know they were still alone at the bar.

'Are you going to sneak out again sometime?' he asked with an impish grin.

'I am _definitely _going to sneak out again sometime,' she breathed, and smiled gently as he pulled her in for another kiss.


End file.
